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The Penguin (Arkhamverse)
A brutal and sadistic crime lord, Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot is known in the Gotham City Underworld as The Penguin and funds much of its criminal operations as one of its biggest black market manufactures. Directing his affairs from a dilapidated ship, the Final Offer, Oswald was seen as a reputable business man to the people of Gotham, but was a sadistic, mass murdering gang leader in reality. Having recently began to accumulate his power within Gotham City's criminal underworld, Cobblepot began to build up his own forces and carve up a piece of the black market for his own profits and purposes. Forming an alliance with Black Mask, the most powerful and sadistic crime lord in the entire city, who has put a $50 million bounty on Batman himself, the Penguin seeks to crumble his competition, particularly the Falcone Crime Family, and aid in killing the Dark Knight in order to consolidate his own power over the city. History Throughout the history of the Cobblepot's family, many of his family members were in a constant rivalry with the Wayne family for control of Gotham City. However, in the case of the Waynes, they were simply conducting their businesses to make a living and even improve Gotham's economic and moral standings through charitable ventures and improved architectural projects, unaware of the direct competition the Cobblepots saw in them in their bid to dominate Gotham's business revenues and criminal underworld. Regardless, the unhealthy fixation to outdo the Wayne family and their business cost many of the Cobblepots their health and their business empires, including Oswald's father, Stanley Cobblepot, who began to neglect his son as a result and sent him overseas to England to spend his educational years. While overseas however, Cobblepot was often bullied for his small stature and spent many days outside of school and on the violent streets instead, associating with the various criminals and thugs. Feeling appreciated and seen as somebody worth wild by the criminal element, Cobblepot began to learn and educate himself about the criminal lifestyle that so appealed to him and how to accumulate massive amounts of wealth and numbers. In the meantime, Cobblepot's father died after nearly bankrupting his own businesses while trying to outdo the Wayne family, the final straw for Oswald, who saw the Wayne family as nothing more than spoiled individuals who ruined his family. Arriving back in Gotham, Copplepot uses his inheritance money to purchase a large ship within Gotham's harbor in Old Gotham, the Final Offer, which he used as his headquarters. From within the bowels of the ship, Penguin would market and sell the latest firearms and military grade equipment, which he smuggles into Gotham through illegal means and could even be tested out in the ship's shooting range, to the criminal element in Gotham. Eventually building up a massive gang of his own, Penguin would lead his men into performing daring heists on other companies that specialized in advanced and military grade weaponry manufacturing and would sell his ill-gotten gains to other criminals and gangs, while keeping a good portion of the equipment for his plans. This would lead to a massive increase in gun activity and violence in Gotham as well as crime as criminals make daring robberies to obtain the money needed to purchase the firearms. Pocketing all his profits, as well as keeping some of the smuggled weaponry as his own, Copplepot would additionally perform jobs of his own on lucrative establishments for their profits and become a rising star in the criminal underworld. Penguin would also build in a large casino filled with booze and drugs within his massive ship, which would attract all manner of thugs, criminals, and greedy individuals to engage in illegal gambling on a nightly basis. However, unknown to all except for Cobblepot's crew, the machines within the casino are purposely rigged to cheat gamblers out of their money while clerks were paid to cheat and swindle others out of their winnings. If anyone on the other side of the spectrum is caught cheating though, Penguin would brutally torture and murder them, displaying their corpses within the ship's theater as a reminder to all with regards to what will happen if they cross him. Penguin would even go as far as to build a gladiator pit within the center of the ship's boiler deck, where brutal fights to the death occurred, appropriately named as the 'Boiler Deck' fights, in which all viewers and participants can bet on the winners. Penguin would store all his money, plans, and blueprints for his future headquarters, the Ice Burg Lounge, in his office. Overseeing the criminal mastermind's operations with him were Candy and Tracy, two beautiful women who worked for Copplepot simply to support themselves in light of the worsening economy in Gotham. With his massive profits, Penguin has no trouble in hiring his own bent cops from within the Gotham City Police Department and even corrupt guards at Blackgate Penitentiary, all of whom aided Penguin's plans by stealing weapons from their respective facilities and selling them to him, giving him inside information on the occurrences in Gotham, and turning a blind eye on his black market dealings. With various informants throughout Gotham's other gangs and criminal elements, Copplebot has tabs all over Gotham and inside information on all its criminal operations and activities. All of Penguin's operations would make him a growing star in the criminal element of Gotham, but Cobblepot was still not satisfied and lusted to wipe out his competition and become one of the leading crime bosses throughout the city. With his immense wealth, Cobblepot began to purchase most of the real estate throughout Old Gotham, including the Cyrus Pinkney Museum, putting him in complete control of the area and gaining the attention of Black Mask, the city's most powerful crime lord. The two villains soon begin a brutal and bloody turf war over complete control of Gotham's criminal underworld until a truce was made; Black Mask would run his operations throughout New Gotham while Penguin would continue to control Old Gotham without the worry of other fractions interfering with his own operations. ''Batman: Arkham Origins On a particularly snowy Christmas Eve in Gotham, Black Mask places a bounty of $50 million on the Dark Knight's head, and enlists eight of the world's most deadly assassins to take down the vigilante. Penguin, having previously formed a truce with Black Mask, decided that the time is right to make his own moves and commence an open war on Black Mask once he learns that Roman Sionis and Black Mask were one and the same based off the fact that Roman has a collection of various masks. Using his latest shipment of military spying equipment, droids, Penguin keeps surveillance over the crime lord. Eventually, Penguin attempts to murder Black Mask with a handful of his crew within his safe house at Lacey Towers, only to find Black Mask's girlfriend, Tiffany Ambrose, dead and hanging from a chandler, and a decoy Black Mask slaughtered. Disturbed by the gruesome fashion in which the murders were committed and annoyed after learning that it wasn't actually Black Mask (due to the fact that there was no pacemaker among the carnage as Roman Sionis had one implanted in his heart), Penguin left the room and building after unknowingly leaving his fingerprints at the crime scene. Due to this, Penguin is initially believed to be the killer by the police, but, thanks to a few bribes, he is never convicted. By that time, he was 51 years old. Unknown to Penguin at the time, Tiffany and the Black Mask decoy were murdered by The Joker, a new criminal mastermind and mass murdering psychopath who desired pure chaos and anarchy, who has been impersonating Black Mask to take control of his criminal empire, hired the assassins, and taken the real Black Mask hostage. Using one of his many inside agents within the Gotham City Police Department, Penguin learns of the assassins and which ones would be of particular interest with regards to selling firearms. Penguin sees this as a great opportunity to capitalize on his own criminal lifestyle and forms an alliance with some of Black Mask's assassins, particularly Deathstroke, also known as Slade Wilson, Deadshot, Bane, and the Electrocutioner, who was more concerned with the annual fighting matches, known as the 'Boiler Deck' fights, that Penguin hosts rather than firearms Penguin provides Bane and his army of mercenaries with immense firepower and military grade equipment to use in their own plans while Deathstroke arrives on the Final offer to collect his ammunition and Electrocutioner arrives to fight in the 'Boiler Deck' fights for money and glory. Batman would eventually make his way to the ship after foiling one of Penguin's firearms deals in old Gotham (which was largely Penguin's fault, as he sent a text to the gang member in charge of the deal inquiring about its status around the time Batman had interrogated him), and fights his way past scores of Penguin's men, soundly defeating Electrocutioner in the process with one kick to the face, and ripping through all his operations. In the meantime, Penguin has managed to capture Alberto Falcone, son of Carmine Falcone and one of Penguin and Black Mask's remaining competitors, and has him brought to the Final Offer to be tortured. Brutalizing Alberto, Cobblepot entices him to convince his father to give up their criminal activities or he would wipe them all out himself. As Penguin is about to further torture Alberto, Batman himself arrives, takes out Penguin's thugs, and interrogates Penguin for information on Black Mask. Penguin informs the vigilante that there was a murder at the Lacey Towers in South Gotham that was somehow connected to Black Mask and his criminal empire. Before he could pry Cobblepot for additional information, Batman is pulled out of the room by Deathstroke's remote claw detonator and is suspended upside down and about to be cut into pieces by Deathstroke. Batman, however, punches Deathstroke, takes his sword, and uses it to free himself and glide down to the gladiator pit below. With Slade following, Batman and the assassin prepare themselves for a brutal brawl as the Penguin gleefully watches from above. However, Batman proves to be much more than even Deathstroke could possibly imagine and defeats the assassin, leaving Penguin to lock himself in his office with Tracey and Candy, also taunting Batman when he attempted to enter and question him further, as well as comment that he "has his hands full at the moment" spending time with Tracy and Candy. However, Batman would have Alfred call the police and let them know where Penguin has been storing his illegally obtained weapons as well as the location of Deathstroke. This would force Penguin to flee his ship as Batman foils the rest of his plans, including disarming all his arms caches hidden throughout Gotham by his inside agents in the GCPD. Despite this, his forcing the Falcone crime family to give up on the weapons business increased his popularity in the underworld, causing at least one criminal, under the employ of Firefly, to consider joining Penguin's group. ''Cold, Cold Heart The Penguin appears in a DLC of Origins, allying himself with Mr. Freeze. ''Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate After the events of Arkham Origins, the Penguin is arrested and placed within Blackgate Penitentiary along with other criminals within Batman's extensive rouges gallery. It is implied that Penguin had actually arranged for himself to get arrested as he initially thought that the prospect of running his criminal empire from within Blackgate might be an ideal method to recruit other criminals and keep himself safe from Batman as he was already locked up and in relative comfort thanks to at least twelve guards on his payroll. However, three months later, a massive explosion within the prison commences a riot that allows Black Mask, The Joker, and the Penguin to seize complete control of the facility and carve up a portion of it for themselves and advance their own, individual agendas. Believing the carnage to be much more complex than just a simple prison riot and takeover, Batman arrives at the penitentiary to investigate the situation further, allowing the Penguin and his fellow criminals a chance of ultimate revenge against their hated enemy. Penguin would use the riots as an opportunity to recruit the prisoners for members of his gang, also using the opportunity to stage fights between various prisoners. Although most accepted Penguin's offer, one, Nat Turner, aka, Bronze Tiger, did not, so Penguin instead gave Tiger the title of "champion" and forces him into fighting various prisoners to the death. After Batman refuses to kill Bronze Tiger upon defeating him, Penguin demands that the prisoners beat up Batman, but Bronze Tiger grazes Penguin with bullets, forcing Penguin to escape, although not before ordering several of his men to attack both as revenge. During this time, Penguin also tries to steal the armory inside Blackgate and smuggle them. His plans are once again thwarted by Batman in the Cell Blocks, and is left to hang. However, he previously struck a deal with Catwoman to rig the place with explosives and hold hostages as ensurance to his escape, which forces Batman to diffuse them or else it would completely destroy Blackgate (this development varies between which of the three main bosses Batman defeats last). Catwoman did not care either way, as she only wants to smuggle Bane out of the prison. While Cobblepot is again apprehended, he is able to escape thanks to a Blackgate guard on his payroll, who is almost immediately murdered by Penguin after the criminal was freed of his restraints and gave him back his umbrella from police lockup, although not before learning that there were 120 criminals under Penguin's employ outside the prison. Not long after this event, Penguin would take up residence within the Cyrus Pinkney Museum in the Bowery of Old Gotham, having purchased it several months prior, and convert it into his new base of operations, constructing the Ice Burg themed restaurant on the other side of the structure. ''Batman: Arkham City :See: The Penguin (Batman: Arkham City) ''Batman: Arkham Knight'' :See: The Penguin (Batman: Arkham Knight) Attributes To be added Extortion Data File One *'Candy:' Hiya, boss. *'Penguin:' Candy? What a treat! Where you been, luv? *'Candy:' Gone fishing, remember? *'Penguin:' Ah, yes. Ya catch anything interesting. *'Candy:' Just a nibble. That Roman's a slippery one, but he does have a new hobby. *'Penguin:' Oh? *'Candy:' Collecting masks. Ain't that a hoot? *'Penguin:' Now, what would Roman want with that lot, I wonder? I think it's time to break out some of our new hardware. We need to keep an eye on our friend, Black Mask. File Two *'Policeman:' Yeah, that you? *'Criminal:' Yeah, it's me. What is it? *'Policeman:' I got uh... information. Your boss - we got him at the scene of the crime. *'Criminal:' What scene? *'Policeman:' Lacey Towers. *'Criminal:' He didn't do it. *'Policeman:' Oh no? *'Criminal:' Should I repeat myself? *'Policeman:' We got him at the scene. Understand? Direct evidence of murder. Cobblepot ain't gonna be able to slip this one. Branden says we're gonna have to bring him in. *'Criminal:' I told ya - he didn't do it. *'Policeman:' That don't matter. All that matters is the evidence. Now... if that evidence should happen to disappear... *'Criminal:' Ah. I see. *'Policeman:' Well, it is Christmas. And with Loeb gone, I gotta look out for my future. *'Criminal:' Alright. It'll be in the usual place. Just don't wait too long. Wouldn't want your cash to get soggy in all this snow. And make sure Branden gets his cut. I don't want that sunova bitch comin' back at me. *'Criminal:' Hey. Always glad to help. File Three *'Criminal:' So? Whattaya got? *'Policeman:' A bunch of heavy hitters. Couple I've identified as potential customers. *'Criminal:' These really their names? *'Policeman:' Aliases. *'Criminal:' Deathstroke. What's that guy into? *'Policeman:' Guns, flashbangs. Deadshot too - sniper by trade. He's good for ammo. *'Criminal:' Whoa. Whoa! Who is this chick? Copperhead? She's wearin' nothin' but ink. *'Policeman:' Yeah, dunno about her. Firefly neither - not for weapons at least. Maybe for other...materials. But this Bane guy - if you got the stomach for it - he's got a whole gang with him. That's your big sale right there. Assuming he don't just rip your arms out for fun. *'Criminal:' Alright. So, how's this work fork with Loeb out a'the picture? *'Policeman:' Can't use the normal channels. This Gordon's a regular boy scout. *'Criminal:' Oh, yeah? Maybe we can help you with that. Quotes Game Over Lines Batman *''"And that's why I'm the boss! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got business to attend to. Piss off!"'' *''"Boys, get him out of here! And don't ding up any of the gear! That's worth some money!"'' *''"Aww, it's a real shame you're dead. You're actually worth more alive!"'' Deathstroke *''"World's greatest assassin? You? Bollocks!"'' *''"Someone rip off his mask for my collection. At least it's not spandex!"'' Trivia *Some criminal chatter has them speculating about the functions of the Penguin's umbrella, including a function where he hypnotizes people by opening it up to reveal a swirling pattern and spin it around. This was a reference to one of the Penguin's umbrellas in the 1960s TV series, as well as a similar umbrella technique used by the Penguin in the film Batman Returns. *The Penguin in an audio tape discussing the origins of the Final Offer commented that its original name was the Olivia B. Meredith, alluding to Oliver Burgess Meredith, the actor who portrayed the Penguin in the 1960s TV series. *In the Penguin's main office, there were blueprints for the Iceberg Lounge. The design was based on the Iceberg Casino from the New 52 serial. Gallery To be added Category:Batman: Arkham Origins Characters